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Every weekend, Windows Central livestreams an Xbox One or Steam game for 1-2 hours and gives out free games to the cool people who join us during the stream. It’s like a live podcast, only you also get to watch a game while chatting with our awesome readers and viewers! We call this show Saturday Game School, because learning about new games is always fun.

Tonight at 9PM ET (8PM CT, 6PM PT, 1AM GMT) on Mixer, we’ll be playing Star Trek Online: Escalation, the latest free expansion to the official Star Trek MMO. We’re also giving out lots of free item codes and Star Trek Blu-rays! Read on for quick impressions and contest details.

Just follow us at Mixer.com/WindowsCentral, enable email notifications, watch along, and participate in chat for your chance to win. After the stream ends, be sure to check back for the YouTube replay video and contest winners.

Watch and follow us at Mixer.com/WindowsCentral!

Star Trek Online: Escalation

Star Trek Online takes place 30 years after the end of Star Trek: Nemesis. It is set within the Prime Reality as opposed to the Kelvin Reality featured in the post-2009 Star Trek films.

Following the destruction of Romulus (as seen in the 2009 Star Trek film), the galactic balance of power has drastically shifted. A new Chancellor has assassinated his way to the top of the Klingon Empire and reignited the Federation-Klingon War.

The latest free Star Trek Online expansion ‘Escalation’ features a new story episode teaming captains with the Lukari to fight off the war-loving Tzenkethi (a race introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), plus an additional episode centered on Sela of Romulus, voiced by Denise Crosby.

Season 13 also introduces War Games, a new system that lets players compete in 5v5 competitive PvE scenarios for rewards. War Games includes a new reputation system that allows players to earn exclusive rewards.

Watch us play Star Trek Online, and then join the fight. Star Trek Online is free to play and features a wealth of story content that Star Trek fans will love.

To enter, just follow us at Mixer.com/WindowsCentral (making sure to enable email notifications!) and tune in during the stream. You can watch the stream right here in this post, but you need to actually participate in the stream chat to have a chance at winning. We’ll contact winners via Mixer message (whisper) during the stream. No code begging!

Feel free to stick around in chat before and after the stream if you have any questions or just want to say hi. If you enjoy the stream, be sure to check our schedule and come back for more!

How to watch Mixer livestreams

We stream exclusively on Mixer, Microsoft’s interactive livestreaming platform (formerly known as Beam). It provides some welcome improvements over Twitch, such as a cleaner website layout, built-in stream interactivity, and extremely low latency.

You can follow our channel at Mixer.com/WindowsCentral. From there, you’ll be able to watch the stream and participate in chat directly from any web browser, including the Windows Phone browsers.

To receive email notifications when our Mixer streams go live:

First, follow our channel.

Now select your profile from the top-right corner of the screen.

Pick the Account option near the bottom of the menu.

Go to the Notifications tab.

Make sure Send me important email updates on the Mixer platform is enabled. This option is labeled deceptively, but it’s required for all forms of email notifications.

Click or tap the Email box next to our channel name until a check appears. That’s it!

We highly recommend that you set a recurring alarm on your phone. Our weekend stream always starts at the same time (9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific), so the phone reminder can be very helpful.

Mixer does not offer a Windows Phone app, so watching from the browser is the only option on Microsoft’s mobile platform. But Mixer does offer apps on Xbox One, Android, and iOS.

Future streams

Want to know what’s next for Windows Central’s weekend Mixer programming? We stream a different game every Saturday (and sometimes Sunday). The stream always starts at the same time: 9 PM Eastern (8 PM Central, 6 PM Pacific, 1 AM GMT). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be streaming the following (schedule not finalized):

We hope you’ll tune in as often as you can! Set a recurring alarm on your phone so you’ll always know when it’s time for the stream to start.

Winners

Come back here after the show to see the list of winners. These viewers are Star Treking across the universe!

Star Trek Online Fluidic Antiproton Wrist Lance

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Director’s CutBlu-rays

Tonight’s prizes provided by Perfect World and Mobile Nations. Thanks also to our stream moderators for keeping the peace and giving away the prizes!